“A Writer Who is Catholic”

About four years back now, she vented frustration about writers, faith, and assumptions. She wasn’t nearly as loud as I’ve often been during ‘vents.’

When folks learned she’s a writer, they’d often say something like ‘oh, good: we need more Catholic writers.’

She’d say something like “I’m a writer who is Catholic, not a ‘Catholic writer.'”

I know what she means. She isn’t writing another ‘lives of the Saints,’ or book of prayers. She’s a Catholic who writes.

Another time, she said that Catholics doing ‘normal person’ stuff was a good idea. I think she’s right.

Being ‘in the world but not of the world’ includes being in the world. The idea shows up in John 15:18–19 and 17:14–16, and Romans 12:2.

What got me thinking about writers and being Catholic was something Fr. Robert Carr wrote recently about the ministry of presence.1 He was discussing urban priests, and the importance of simply being in the neighborhood.

I figure the principle applies to laity, too. We won’t do much good if we’re not around. Acting like we’re a few cards short of full deck doesn’t seem reasonable, either.

I’m not sure how ‘normal’ being a writer is. But for me it’s about as natural as breathing. And nearly as unavoidable. I suspect my daughter’s the same way.

Telling Stories

She’s writing a series of fantasy stories. Or maybe they’re science fiction.

These stories are not “Catholic” or “Christian.” Not overtly.

Religion isn’t part of their fictional landscape. Like the fellow said, “the book has not been baptized.”

That doesn’t bother me.

Having characters shouting “hallelujah” at intervals, or saying ‘dost thou’ instead of ‘have you,’ doesn’t make a story ‘religious.’

My daughter’s stories are set in a sub-creation2 that’s different in physical detail from the real world. But it works the same way on other levels.

I’ve known a few folks who don’t like fiction, particularly fantasy and science fiction. As long as readers don’t have trouble telling the difference between ‘real’ and ‘make-believe,’ I don’t see a problem with imaginary tales.

The ‘good guys’ in her stories often mean well, but sometimes do bad things: even by their standards. Her ‘bad guys’ do emphatically bad things, but at least one of them had been forced to behave badly.

She’s writing about human, and other, beings who are not perfect. Her fictional characters cope, or fail to cope, with that ancient wound we call original sin.3

I think there’s value in telling stories where folks act like people, decisions influence actions, and actions have consequences. A story can show how reality works without getting preachy. Or being “realistic.”

Hammurabi’s law code, 125, talks about theft of property left in another person’s care, but doesn’t mention how copyright applies to DRM. The WIPO Copyright Treaty does. The WIPO treaty almost certainly doesn’t deal with all property disputes of the 5740s.

That sort of thing is positive law, rules we make up. They change as our cultures change. They should change, at any rate. Positive law works best when it’s based on natural law. (June 18, 2017; February 5, 2017)

Style, Substance, and Steampunk

Diehard fans of the King James Bible notwithstanding, there’s nothing ‘Biblical’ about antique English. Take this career advice from Lady MacBeth, for example:

Writers and artists dealing with imaginary worlds can get material by mining another era’s design aesthetic. Studio Foglio’s Girl Genius serial epic introduced me steampunk before I learned it was a new(ish) sub-genre, one the Foglios call “gaslamp fantasy,” and that’s yet again another topic.

Stories, the ones folks read when they’re not assigned reading for some class, reflect reality: even if the setting is far from ‘realistic.’

One of these days I may buckle down and write about Castle Dampthorn, or do more excerpts from Otha Sisk’s “Notes of a Traveler.” Meanwhile, I’ll most likely keep writing the sort of things you see here.

Surrounded by Beauty and Wonders

We live in a vast and ancient universe, surrounded by beauty and wonders.

It’s pretty much the same as it was a few centuries back. What’s changing is how much we’ve learned about how it works.

Each time we learn something new about Earth’s long story, spot a planet circling another star, or get closer to understanding how reality works on subatomic scales, it’s an opportunity for greater admiration of God’s work. (Catechism, 283, 341)

Truth and beauty is everywhere. Noticing it, or not, depends on whether we decide that paying attention is worth the effort.

It’s expressed many ways: in words, “the rational expression of the knowledge;” “the order and harmony of the cosmos;” and “the greatness and beauty of created things.” (Catechism, 32, 41, 74, 2500)

God’s infinite beauty reflected in “the world’s order and beauty” tells us a little about God. Being curious is a good idea. A thirst for truth and happiness is written into each of us. If we’re doing our job right, it’ll lead us to God. (Catechism, 27, 31–32, 341)

4 Quite a few scholars figure the core of Deuteronomy was written in Jerusalem during the 7th century BC. That would make what we call Deuteronomy 5:19, “You shall not steal,” fairly new around Nebuchadnezzar II’s day:

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About Brian H. Gill

I'm a sixty-something married guy with six kids, four surviving, in a small central Minnesota town. I mostly write and make digital art. I'm only interested in three things: that which exists within the universe; that which exists beyond; and that which might exist.

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